[thelist] Payment offsite or on site?

[Barry Woolgar]

Hello Bill

> What are your opinions about the off-site approach these days?  Think
users care?

We've been using SecureTrading as an offsite payment gateway (they take on
the burden of PCI compliancy) for quite some time and they let you style up
your payment pages however you like, all they require is a small logo be
shown somewhere on each of the pages. 

Therefore the only thing that gives it away is the address bar, and I don't
think users check this for anything other than the padlock/SSL symbol. If
they do, they're probably aware enough to understand what has happened. Tap
a bit of explanatory text into checkout handoff page and you're covered.

One difference between Paypal and SecureTrading is that you require a proper
merchant account, whereas Paypal is much more open (but more expensive per
transaction I believe).

In our experience, it's unlikely you'll be able to implement an onsite
payment system without serious expenditure of time and money spent on PCI
compliancy. 

Hope that helps

Barry